fUCHT International, 25 March I96S
been in service already for some years and the B-70 bomber,
although it will not go into production, should soon be flying fairly
regularly. So far it has only made a few test flights. Although the
B-70 was apparently designed for Mach 3, it has proved so difficult
to design and construct that this experience may well decide certain
aspects and qualities of the American SST. For instance, it may
well cause the expected Mach number to be reduced. This military
experience, although not on transport aircraft, will certainly give a
great deal of aerodynamic and other information which will help
the American SST to come into service more easily than the
Concorde. If a couple of Concordes were operated by the RAF and
another couple by the French Air Force, it might make a vital
difference to the long-term success of the project.
FjAA TIGHTENS EMERGENCY RULES
THE US Federal Aviation Agency has now issued its new rulings
on passenger emergency evacuation requirements. They come into
force on June 7 and equipment requirements must be met by July 1
next year. The new rules—which were the subjects of a proposal
notice in October 1963 and of a public hearing on June 25 last year
—require demonstrations of rapid evacuation in ground emergencies
and call for more cabin staff on large aircraft, improved equipment
and more effective procedures and training.
The demonstrations—to be made before July 6 and applicable
to all aircraft with more than 44 passenger seats—must show that
all the occupants of a full aeroplane can get out within a period of
2min when using not more than half the number of authorized
emergency exits. They will cover simulated take-off abandonments
and gear-up crash landings in darkness. At least 30 per cent of the
occupants must be female, 5 per cent must be over 60 years of age,
443
and 5-10 per cent must be children under 12; three or four life-size
dolls will be used to represent infants.
A minimum of four cabin attendants will be required on air-
craft with 150-190 seats; only three are required at present. The
ratios of cabin crew to passengers for smaller-capacity aircraft will
be: one for 10-44 seats; two for 45-99 seats; and three for 100-149
seats.
The new rules include revised standards for emergency-exit signs,
opening instructions and external marking; and new provisions
for emergency cabin lighting after main electrical power failure.
Passengers will, in future, be briefed orally before take-off on such
things as seat belts and the location and operation of emergency
exits; this briefing will supplement printed information. In aircraft
with more than 60 seats battery operated megaphones must be
available for crew members.
The tightening of emergency rulings follows a growing conviction,
based on evidence, that more people could be saved in "survivable"
accidents. In the years 1960-63 there were four US air-carrier
accidents in which people died of asphyxiation after surviving the
crash impact; in these accidents 106 people died and 137 were saved.
ASI PRESENTATION RESEARCH
DYNAMIC reading test equipment will shortly come into use in
the Ministry-sponsored five-part research programme by BEA at
London Heathrow into airspeed-indicator presentation. Infor-
mation is still being gathered from a pilot-preference survey and
from static instrument reading tests by line pilots. We hope to
describe and comment on some of this important research work in
next week's issue.
De Havilland Canada's Twin
Otter programme is moving well
on schedule and the first flight
is still expected to take place in
June. Two aircraft are in final
assembly and because of favour-
able operator reaction a second
production batch has been started
which is substantially larger than
the initial batch of five aircraft.
A 5001b increase in permitted
gross weight has been engineered
without any increase in empty
weight